Trinamul names Manish Gupta as RS poll candidate

Kolkata: Manish Gupta was nominated as Trinamul candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat which has fallen vacant following Mithun Chakraborty’s resignation a few months back. Polls will be held on March 17. Mr Gupta, a former IAS officer and ex-chief secretary of Bengal, was also power minister in Mamata Banerjee’s Cabinet in 2011.

Former minister of state (MoS) health Chandrima Bhattacharya was nominated for the bypolls in Contai (South). The Contai (South) seat fell vacant as Dibyendu Adhikari was nominated for the Lok Sabha seat and for that he resigned from the MLA post on being elected as an MP.

“The decision was taken at the core committee meeting and all the leaders agreed to the nominations,” TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said after the meeting.

Mr Gupta had lost the Jadavpur seat, while Ms Bhattacharya was defeated from DumDum (North) seat in the 2016 Assembly elections when the party won a landslide victory in Bengal.

Ms Banerjee was unhappy about the defeats of two important party colleagues. She tried to compensate their losses by appointing Mr Gupta as advisor in the power department and Ms Bhattacharya as chairperson of State Medical Services Corporation. “Our supremo wants to give Ms Bhattacharya a Cabinet portfolio and for that she has been renominated,” a senior TMC leader said. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Gupta expressed his heartfelt thanks to Ms Banerjee for giving him yet another chance to serve the people of Bengal and work for them.

“We have the same responsibility in whatever role we play. Our leader, Mamata Banerjee, has always asked us to place people’s needs ahead of everything else. In Delhi, we will be playing the same role,” he said. Actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty resigned from the Rajya Sabha on December 26.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 and his term was scheduled to expire in 2020. His name was, however dragged, in the Saradha chit fund scam. The Enforcement Directorate had summoned him for questioning in 2015. Mr Chakraborty, however, set an example by returning Rs 1.2 crore to the ED which he had received as fee for his work as the brand ambassador of Saradha.